This outcome document was released on December 10, 2011 at the 17th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa.The meeting resulted in the decision to begin forging a new treaty next year, to be completed by 2015 and coming into effect by 2020. A new climate fund, the "Green Climate Fund" was established, and the EU and a number of other countries agreed to emissions cuts under the Kyoto Protocol.

Delegates at climate talks underway in South Africa would be better off addressing matters such as a global climate fund rather than trying to preserve the contentious Kyoto Protocol, says CFR's Michael Levi.

There seems little possibility that next month's climate summit in Durban will produce an emissions-reduction agreement--meaning the world will soon lack any binding CO2 targets and Europe may find itself alone in the fight against global warming.

In this New York Times Op-Ed, Veerabhadran Ramanathan and David G. Victor argue that delegates meeting for climate change talks in Cancún should take a few immediate, practical actions to have an effect on the climate in the coming decades.

CFR Experts Guide

The Council on Foreign Relations' David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR's "think tank"—is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners (called "fellows"). Their expertise covers the world's major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today's global agenda. Download the printable CFR Experts Guide.

New Council Special Reports

Campbell evaluates the implications of the Boko Haram insurgency and recommends that the United States support Nigerian efforts to address the drivers of Boko Haram, such as poverty and corruption, and to foster stronger ties with Nigerian civil society.

Koblentz argues that the United States should work with other nuclear-armed states to manage threats to nuclear stability in the near term and establish processes for multilateral arms control efforts over the longer term.

The authors argue that it is essential to begin working now to expand and establish rules and norms governing armed drones, thereby creating standards of behavior that other countries will be more likely to follow.

2014 Annual Report

Learn more about CFR’s mission and its work over the past year in the 2014 Annual Report. The Annual Report spotlights new initiatives, high-profile events, and authoritative scholarship from CFR experts, and includes a message from CFR President Richard N. Haass.Read and download »